Hey all, haven’t posted here in a few months although still reading up.
Well I have a new plan that I put together. It’s a small layout, 3x7 (ish) in N-scale. Time period will be 1950-1955, region will be northeast, looking at NY Central line. Completely freelanced, looking for a little switching via a couple industries, staging and an interchange track. The two industries are small, maybe furniture or brewing, possibly paper with raw materials coming from staging or interchange. There is also some continuous running if I want to.
Smallest radius is 9 3/4 so I know that will limit my trains which is fine. This layout is more for building purposes (practice) and of course running some trains with some realistic operations.
Little about the layout. Staging on lower left. Interchange lower right. Industry in the middle with the town on north and south side. With the industries to the left and right, I made a run around track in the middle to drop off and pick up cars more easily.
The towns are going to be on slight hills (green outlines) to give me a little change in height. The track will remain flat. Roads are the black lines, and are there for flavor. They are subject to change as are the buildings. Buildings are actual footprints from DPM buildings (which I have several) and Walthers Cornerstone. Towns will be connected with overpasses which is a scene I would like going over the track (a druther). River and farm middle left are very optional, but I would like a trestle or bridge of some sort on the layout (druther #2) which is why I’m thinking the river will stay. Could change that to small lake/pond with waterway leading off layout to bridge over.
I want to build a nice scene and run some trains around. Don’t really have room for much more than this. Apartment living.
Well here it is. Let me know what you think. All opinions welcomed and appreciated.
There is one crossover from a passing track that I want to reverse, right
You have a lot of space there. Take a look at what you really want and put it in. I’d try to upgrade those curves to 12-15" I have a plan for your area almost–It is 84 x 42. The main thing I’d ask you to to look at is the backdrop. It creates two entirely different scenes and therefore adds a lot of variety. I switch between scenery and urban canyons. But if you had two towns, one could be staging for the other.
I took a look at your plan, and it looks good overall. I can see that you’ve put some thought into it. I have a couple of suggestions, some that you’ve already pointed out, that might help. I noted the changes directly onto your pic.
Somehow I knew it would be you two that were going to respond to my post. You have on the other track plan posts I’ve thrown out there.
Thanks as always.
Hey Phil, the runaround track I was thinking would be just the locomotive moving around pulling and pushing cars into the spurs. That is why I didn’t make it too much longer. Not sure if this is prototypical or not, but at least that was my reasoning. To make it clearer (of confuse the issue, not sure which) I would stop the train on lead into the industrial tracks, uncouple the loco with the cars for the Brewery and move them forward past the switch. Back them up so they aren’t on the switches, then uncouple loco, run it around use the runaround track then couple at the end of cars and push them into Brewery spur. Then repeat for the other two spurs. Also have to figure out how to get empties at this time as well. Again I’d like to make that longer if I could, but not sure I can without shortening spurs to increase runaround. Which I guess I could do being that there is some room there. Ok so now I just kind of thought out loud and typed as I was thinking.
Hey Chip, the outer curved track is 11 degrees, I’ll try to make that the inner and increase the outer curve track. This isn’t even going to be a freestanding layout. It’s going on the dining room table and then under the bed when not in use. I have to build in in two halves and make it lightweight. The little woman doesn’t want it out all the time so I had to make concessions. Those are my givens unfortunately. I’ve pretty much used about all the room I can muster with this design.
I’ll try and work something out and repost it here. Thanks again guys.
OK, doing it that way on the industrial spur you could probably finagle maybe three cars around at a time.
The biggest change would be to reverse the crossover in the lower right. It would not only flow better, but it would also eliminate the “S” turn.
As to Chip and myself…we both love track planning, though I think he’s better at it then I am. As such, we both tend to respond to those kinds of posts. In theory, the more we comment on these, the better we get at it. At least, I hope thats how it works out!
BTW, Chip’s right on about the backdrop. It would be easy for you to do too!
I don’t know about being better at designing. I do like doing it. Mostly, people here really helped me when I did my first layout. I just figure it’s time to give back.
As for the backdrop, because it is going under a bed, it would have to be easily removable and restored. Still, it increase both operations and variety.
Funny, I had the same thoughts… widen the turn radius and eliminate that extra crossover when I looked at it too
I like Chip’s plan with the backdrop too… even if you kept the backdrop low, maybe only a couple inches higher than the rooftops, it would still be effective I think.
Ok reworked the plan, taking into consideration (tried to) the great ideas you all had.
Chip, did take your idea with the backdrop splitting into two towns. One will be smalltown usa, the other the industrial center. I won’t make the backdrop too tall since the layout will be going from dining table to under bed. Will be removable to make it under bed of course. Also, at about 42" I have it so the track set up so it will be easy to make sections. All curves are now 11 degrees which should work with the cars that I have. If I were able to make it wider I’d go with 12-13, but this will have to do.
Hoping the runaround is big enough now but may have to derail in the lead which I don’t think is too big a drawback. I may make that whole row industy on either side and maintenance buildings on the runaround. Not sure yet.
Changed the yard a little bit too. Wanted the trains to pull directly into the yard which I think could work out well.
All in all the trackwork portion is neater with less “hope it really fits” spots. Think I eliminated some “S” curves but may have added others. Nothing too drastic that a slow moving train couldn’t handle. Also changed that crossover.
I like the fact that I have room to make a nice town scene and raise it so it looks over the tracks. If my ability can match the mental picture could look nice.
You can eliminate another S-curve by changing one turnout from a right-hand to a left-hand in the lower left corner. Tracing down from the backdrop on the outter loop, the first turnout you come to is the one I’d swap from right-hand to left-hand to make the through route use the straight section of the turnout.
When I first looked at your drawing my first response was, how is it that he can get so little int that space. Then it dawned on me that it was a limitation of the software, at least the way you are using it. Maybe Phillip can help you out there.
Go back and look at the layout I drew. You’ll notice that the distance between the tracks on the double main is half what yours are. Look at the yard and runarounds–same thing. This is carried throughout your design. Your runaround takes double the space; your yard takes an incredible amount of space. ON my design, I’m using #8 turnouts and still getting more for the space.
On your design this is huge. It is almost as if you are designing in HO or TT.
AT any rate if you were to attach your yard at the straight at 6 o’clock and run the yard to the left and the lead to the right, you’ll have a much better yard. You’ll also have room for engine service above the yard to the left.
I think, though, you need to solve the software problem before you go further with the design. Either get help from Phillip or take the time to learn XtrkCAD.
The more I looked at this, the more something looked out of place. Chip hit the nail on the head.
I took the liberty of fooling with this a bit (hope you don’t mind) and came up with this:
The scenery is generic and could be changed. The backdrop could go all the way across if you want. I just did a 3/4 one. The minimum radius is 12.5" on the inside and 13.75" on the outside. No curves on the layout are tighter then 12.5". All turnouts except those in the yard are #7’s. The yard has #5’s. And there’s a small enginehouse too. Speaking of the yard, it has a proper lead now so that switching the yard doesn’t foul the main. By tightening things up a few more industries were able to show up, thus enhanceing switching operations. The one thing I forgot was an interchange, but I suppose the business in the top right could go away and the interchange could be there.
It’s not perfect, but its decent. It gives an idea of what can be done with your basic layout in the space.
Phil, I never mind you throwing something together.
Chip I see what you are saying about the software. I don’t think it’s the software as much as it’s the library I had loaded. I switched to Atlas N Code 50 from the Atlas N Track and I can really see the difference, much cleaner if that makes sense. Giving a shot at Phil’s layout design and incorporating what I had in my own. So basically making the suggestions you all had from the beginning. lol
Haven’t finished the design yet, 1:30a and my eyes went buggy. Odd how that can happen looking at a computer for 15 hours out of the day everyday.
One thing I am worried about is the track center distance between the parallel tracks. Is it about an inch and am eight for n scale and a little larger on turns? I have Track Planning by John Armstrong (the bible) and it’s 2 1/4 for HO and I’m have to half it for N. Am I correct in this or is my head lodged in my @$$, which wouldn’t be the first time.
Thanks for all the help. I’ll post more as I finish.
I got up a little early and I told my self I wasn’t going to design you a layout, that you had it under control, I wasn’t going, to, but you know if I just did this and this…and well here it is.
Going by your first post, you gave your druthers as:
NY Central 1950-1955–this means big steam. The turnouts I used were Peco Large for the mains and Peco Mediums for the sidings. Minimum radius around 13.5"
Interchange track. The double main represents the New York Central Main; the loop is a branch line. The layout is expandable as you gain larger space.
Staging–This is hidden behind a short backdrop. You shouldn’t have to remove it if you keep it low.
The yard is for exchanging cars between the main and the branch. The turntable is for fun, but it serves the purpose of turning the engines and looks cool.
OF course, there is a variety of industrial switching.
This layout is for amusement purposes only. I doubt it is what you envisioned. Take it or leave it for as much or as little as you want. Naturally you would modify the switching when you start shopping for industrial buildings.
Chip like the design, and the webpage. Been going through it for a few days now. I take a look when at my desk now wanting to do work, which is often.
I like the idea of a through yard, I kind of have that on this new design but probably not as optimal as it should be. Tried to duplicate some of Phil’s design which in theory was still pretty close to the plan of my old one, just designed much better.
Great to have all the help from you guys. Feel free to keep it coming. [bow]
About the plan, red line is a backdrop. I’ll get my nice town for viewing and some switching along with industrial on other side. Not sure about my runaround if I gave it enough room, I can expand that if need be.
Judging by my roads I’m not a city planner, but that will be changed after researching my scenery and checking out a few books.
Smallest radius is 12.5 degrees and may go with transition era since I may have problems with big steam.
Any thoughts on if my center distance gives me enough clearance for trains?
First off, I would hesitate to sacrifice your vision because you can’t work out the plan yet. By that I mean, if you like steam, that is what you should be planning for.
On the current layout, I see a couple problems. Starting at 7:30, You have room for an engine shed, but no room for fuel, water , sand, ash pit, etc.
The yard lead is so long it interferes with the main at 12 o’clock.
My suggestion would be to move the yard to the inside of the main and flip your switching to the other side, bringing your “city” to the side with the yard. This will have a few major impacts.
You will increase your turn radii.
You separate your “yard” from your switching. Since you don’t have staging, you can have one side builds trains to be switched on the other. If nothing else, you can have the illusion of building trains that will go out to the rest of the world.
Picture this, you have a local that you just switched on the industrial side. You are bringing back empties and outgoing product. You bring them into the yard, and based upon where the cars are going, you build and send one through train east and one through train west. When those trains “return” (you let them set on the main on the other side until it is time for the next through train to return), you build a new train to be switched locally, and you send it to the industrial side to be switched out,
You still can have an industry or two on the yard side if you choose, but separate the major switching action from the yard.
You can put in a turntable. You may not be able to turn trains, but you can turn engines and passenger cars. You’ll want this if you operate as described above.
In addition, switching your industries from an east-bound train will be different than switching them from a west-bound train.
Came back with 3 different designs with different features. They are still based off the original idea, or at least in the spirit of the original. Size remains the same, 42x84 and able to split down the middle. They all with have a backdrop to split length wise down the middle (thanks Chip).
One is with a through yard (at least my attempt at one) then more typical loop with the staging curved at the end for more space. Last is a layout with a roundhouse. Not sure if I’ve given it enough room. Tell me what you think. I have some tracks color coordinated just for my own separation as to what their purpose is.
Let me know what you think if you have a chance. Would explain more about them but i’m tired and it’s too close to 1a.
